Horrible Histories team keep it gruesome and gory to make learning fun

Grisly end: Mel Gibson as William Wallace in the film Braveheart (Image: 20th Century Fox)

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The thought of a history lesson would usually make children run a mile.

But the best-selling books and a smash hit TV show, Horrible Histories, struck on the formula for success when it comes to keeping kids interested - the gruesome details...

They have entertained thousands of children with their gruesome and gory take on the past.

The stage show, Barmy Britain, combining all the best beastly bits of our history, became the longest running children’s production in London’s West End. Now Barmy Britain Part Two has opened at the Garrick Theatre in the city.

Director and co-writer, Neal Foster, says: “There’s so much British history to get through. We start with the Celts and end up in the Victorian period.

"Children love all the gory, naughty, the silly, the rude and disgusting and we make sure it’s full of all that.

“We bring history to life so it all helps you to understand and put yourself in their position because suddenly it’s very real and it’s there in front of you.”

These are just a few of the terrible tales that are sure to make you squirm...

William Wallace

Mel Gibson famously played William Wallace in the film Braveheart. In 1305, the Scottish warrior who fought for his nation’s freedom was hanged, drawn and quartered after King Edward put a price on his head.

After being strapped onto wooden hurdle, he was taken through the streets naked and hanged until he was almost dead. He was then woken up, disemboweled and cut into four pieces, which were sent to different parts of the country as a warning to what happened to people guilty of treason.

Bran the Blessed

Legend has it that after being fatally wounded in battle with the Irish, ancient Welsh hero Bran the Blessed ordered his men to cut off his head and bury it under Tower Hill facing France.

Back then, people believed heads had special powers and could ward off invasion.

But when King Arthur found out, he ordered the head to be dug up to prove he could protect the country himself.

William Hare and William Burke

These two canal navvies, originally from Ireland, met in a lodging house for beggars and vagrants, in Edinburgh.

When a fellow tenant at the boarding house, an army pensioner, died owing £4 in rent, they sold his body to a Doctor Robert Knox who ran popular anatomy class.

Body snatchers: Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis in the 2010 film Burke and Hare

It was the start of a gruesome side business that saw Hare and Burke kill 16 people, including a ten-year-old boy in the space of a year, and sell on the bodies.

The pair smothered their victims so as not to leave any evidence but it didn’t stop them being caught.

Burke was hanged after a trial but Hare, who testified against his friend, was let off.

The irony is, Burke’s body was handed over to a dissection class and students made a book bound in his flesh, which was common practice for executed criminals in the 19th century as people started to develop a morbid fascination for such things.

A card case was also made and featured on the C4 auction show, Four Rooms. Funnily enough, no one wanted to buy it...

Richard The Lionheart

Even for the fearsome Middle Ages, Richard I was pretty horrible. When the Muslim leader Saladin re-conquered the city of Jerusalem, Richard wasn’t happy so he hatched a plan to get it back.

In 1191, he managed to break the city walls with the help of the French King’s army.

Even when he was sick with scurvy, the King still managed to pick up his crossbow and shoot at enemy guards from his stretcher.

Saladin agreed to pay a hefty ransom if Richard spared his defenders but, a month later, when that wasn’t met, Richard took 2,700 Muslims prisoner and ordered them to be beheaded in a nearby forest.

King Charles I

King Charles I was never going to be a well-liked monarch. He was arrogant and infamous for making bad decisions.

When he was executed, in 1645, the crowds were allowed to go up to the scaffold and dip their handkerchiefs in his blood – for a cost.

They believed the blood of a King, when wiped onto a wound, would cure them of all their ills.

In 2008, one of these handkerchiefs was sold at auction for £3,700.

The plague

They seem bizarre now but drinking ten-year-old treacle and being whipped were all legitimate cures for the plague back in the 14th Century.

Black death: A plague hospital (Image: Getty)

It was said the treacle needed to be rotten to be effective but not only did it not stop the plague, it also gave sufferers a bad case of wind.

But the most bizarre has to be the Vicary method, named after English doctor Thomas Vicary, who advised sufferers to shave a hen’s bottom and stick it on their swollen lymph nodes – while the chicken was still alive.

Groom of the Stool

The Groom of the Stool involved the unfortunate task of wiping the monarch’s bottom after he’d visited the toilet but it was a much sought after role. It gave you plenty of time alone with the King who confided their secrets while on the ‘throne’.

During Henry VIII’s reign the job belonged to Sir Henry Norris. He was one of several men at court who Anne Boleyn was accused of having an affair with. Let’s hope he washed his hands first.

Elizabeth I was obviously capable of doing her business without help though as she scrapped the Groom of the Stool when she came to power.

Lord Nelson

Think compo culture is a modern phenomenon? Think again!

After losing the sight in his right eye during the French Revolutionary Wars, he was told he would need a doctor’s certificate before he was allowed compensation.

Compensation: Lord Nelson

Their point was that they had no way of knowing if he was blind or not without it. Nelson was so shocked, he jokingly asked doctors to give him a note for his arm which he’d lost at the Battle of Santa Cruz just in case.

The letter did the trick and he got a captain’s compensation.

Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain – Part Two! is now at the Garrick Theatre, London WC2. For tickets or more information call 0844 412 4662 or visit barmybritain.com